The Treasury Department announced on Friday that it blacklisted firms helping launder billions of dollars in foreign currencies, including converting oil sales made primarily with Chinese yuan into other legal tender. In a separate statement, Treasury unveiled sanctions on China-based Qingdao Haiye Oil Terminal Co. China is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil.
“We will relentlessly target the regime’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds, and pursue anyone enabling Tehran’s attempts to evade sanctions,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a statement.
The US is ramping up economic pressure on Iran with a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war. President Donald Trump is pushing Iran to capitulate to US demands as the strait’s closure sharply raises global energy prices.
As part of the US effort to pressure Iran into a deal, Treasury has issued a regular cadence of sanctions including some targeted at Chinese entities.
The US also sanctioned Qingdao Haiye, a China-based petroleum terminal operator, for allegedly trading Iranian oil. The Chinese firm is accused of using deceptive shipping practices to import tens of millions of barrels of sanctioned Iranian crude, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
Targeting China highlights how Washington’s escalating pressure campaign has extended beyond Iran to those that purchase its oil. The US naval blockade has curbed Tehran’s ability to export crude, cutting the major OPEC producer from a major source of revenue. As a result, the country is rapidly running out of storage capacity, raising the risk of accelerated production cuts, according to Kpler.
On Tuesday, the US Treasury had warned banks they were at risk of secondary sanctions if they supported independent Chinese refiners that purchase Iranian oil, and last week announced sanctions on one of China’s largest private refiners over ties to Tehran.
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